Fabrication and Compressive Properties of Open-Cell Ni-Mo-Cr (Hastelloy) Foams Manufactured by Electrostatic Powder Spraying

An open-cell Ni-Mo-Cr foam was newly manufactured using electrostatic powder spraying process and its room-temperature compressive properties were investigated in this study. For manufacturing Ni-Mo-Cr foam, Ni-Mo-Cr powders were sprayed on the polyurethane pre-form by electrostatic powder spraying process. And then, Ni-Mo-Cr powder sprayed pre-forms were sintered at 1200°C, 1250°C, and 1300°C, respectively. The relative densities of Ni-Mo-Cr foams were measured at 4 ~ 5%. Room tempera-ture compressive curves of ESP Ni-Mo-Cr foams represented the typical compressive 3-stages (elastic, plateau, densification) of open-cell metallic foam. As a result of observation of deformed specimen, the fracture mode found to be changed from brittle to ductile as sintering temperature increased. Based on these findings, correlations between structural characteristics, microstructure, and compressive deformation behavior were also discussed.